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Gestafyrirlestur - From Individual Experiences to a National System

Nathan Reigner:

From Individual Experiences to a National System. Foundations of tourism planning and management in National Parks and protected areas.

National parks and related protected are mission-oriented places. They are designated to protect, preserve, and interpret natural resources and cultural heritage. They are also charged with facilitating public access and providing recreational and educational opportunities for visitors. This is a complex mission and park managers must balance often competing objectives. Striking this balance requires science that describes and analyzes the experiences of visitors and their interactions with each other and the park environment. Furthermore, this balance must be struck at the multiple levels at which park and protected area systems operate, which range from individual visitor experiences through park sites and units to national and global systems of protected areas.

In this talk, Nathan will review the foundational concepts that inform his approach tourism planning and management in national parks and protected areas, illustrating them with examples from historical and contemporary research.

Nathan Reigner, PhD is a Fulbright Scholar hosted by the Icelandic Tourism Research Center (RMF) and the University of Akureyri. His research, funded by the Icelandic Ministry of Foreign Affairs and US National Science Foundation's Arctic research program is focused on national parks and tourism in Iceland. Nathan will pursue two tracks of research during his time with RMF: 1) documenting and analyzing the initiatives to reorganize administration of Iceland's national parks and establish a central highlands national park, and 2) applying and adapting data collection methods for integrated monitoring of tourism to parks, including social, environmental, and management aspects of tourism pressure.

Dr. Reigner comes to Iceland from the United States where he is the principal of Recreation and Tourism Science, an independent consultancy that helps parks, protected areas, and tourism destinations address issues of carrying capacity, crowding, and conflict. In addition to his work in Iceland, Nathan has ongoing projects in Yosemite National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, the Pacific Crest Trail, and the White Mountain National Forest. Nathan is a member of the National Academies of Science's Transportation Research Board Standing Committee on the Transportation Needs of National Parks and Public Lands and is a 2018 Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center Research Fellow. Nathan is an avid outdoor recreationist with passions for skiing, hiking, biking, and dinner cooked on a campfire.